Many San Antonians regularly saw Barclay Anthony's restaurateur father — sometimes more than he did when he was little, save for Sundays. Now the president of Sea Island Shrimp House, Barclay appreciates the dedication and commitment that his late father, Dan Anthony, had for his successful restaurants.

“I heard conversations between mom and dad for so many years about quality, consistency. So really, I knew that that was the lifeblood of the company,” Barclay says. “The other thing that they would talk about so much that rubbed off on me was variety.”

Barclay is among the third generation — he has six siblings, including Nick Anthony who owns Papouli's — in a family that has made its mark on San Antonio's dining scene for 100 years. His grandfather, Tom Anthony (shortened from Anthonopoulous in 1905 at Ellis Island), co-founded the famous Manhattan Cafe in 1912 that was once a landmark on Houston Street. Dan succeeded his father at the restaurant and opened the first Sea Island Shrimp House with longtime customer and friend Henry Reed in 1965. Dan's wife, Chrissy, started working there and instituted the unique ordering system — in which orders are taken, but not cooked until the party is seated — one night when the tables were full and customers were waiting.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” she says.

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Dan closed the Manhattan Cafe in March 1977. Of its closing, Express-News columnist Paul Thompson wrote, “For decades, it was San Antonio's class restaurant offering silver service over delicate spotless napery, creating French pastries in its own 24-hour ovens, serving finnan haddie, lobster, the finest of meats cooked to order and fit for a Parisian epicure.”

“We still have people that come in and ask about cheesecake and black bottom pie; everything was so good. It had flavor,” Chrissy says.

Dan and Reed also opened Old San Francisco Steakhouse, followed by a second Sea Island.

“They could tell stories,” Barclay says, such as when the Manhattan Cafe became one of the first restaurants to have air conditioning.

“The other story that I loved was how Bob Luby, of Luby's, and Earl Abel, of Earl Abel's ... they all got together one day and decided at the same time to desegregate the restaurants,” he says.

Barclay, 45, started busing tables, washing dishes and peeling shrimp at the original Sea Island, 322 W. Rector St., when he was 7. At 14, he was scaling fish at Polunsky's market. He joined Sea Island as an adult in 1992 after working as a financial analyst.

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“I was really never a foodie; I've been more of a technician,” he says. “My dad, he had a pantry full of spices, from top to bottom. He was sampling and figuring out flavor profiles,” he says. “He would have our vendors always working on making things better. Then, mom followed through on that.”

“Everything that he's doing now,” Chrissy, 78, says of Barclay, who works with the vendors, many of which have been with Sea Island for decades.

“All I really had to do was respect what they had set up and not try to change it,” Barclay says.

Father and son worked together, just as Dan and Tom had, until Dan's death in 2001.

“One thing that I always feel eternally lucky for is that I got to work with him for a good solid 10 years,” Barclay says. “So, I got to know him better.”

He has continued in his father's and grandfather's footsteps by expanding to six Sea Island locations that serve 40,000 people a week, a little more than 2 million per year. Sea Island Restaurant Group also owns Tiago's.

“We are all just stewards of what mom and dad and our grandparents set up,” Barclay says. “So we honor this ... and hopefully, pass this on to others younger in our family.”

He has plans to expand and evolve the brand. Now, his three sons, ages 5, 8 and 10, see their father's dedication to the family business, and the oldest already has his sights set on continuing the legacy.

At the last Greek FUNstival, someone asked the children, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

Luke, 10, answered, “I want to be a restaurateur just like my dad.” jmcinnis@express-news.net